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Dessert

Vinegar Candy

A candy made by boiling molasses with cider vinegar until it hardens, then shaping into sticks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Vinegar Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. In a large pot, combine the molasses and cider vinegar.

  2. Boil the mixture until a drop in cold water becomes hard and brittle.

Shape and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into shallow platters and let it cool until manageable.

  2. Form the cooled candy into a large roll and cut it into sticks.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Molasses + cidertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

New orleans molasses
Provides the main sweetness, body and dark color of the candy.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the molasses sweetness and brightens the flavor.

The step that matters

Boiling to the hard-crack stage. Sugar concentration must rise enough that the cooled candy sets hard and brittle rather than sticky. Stopping early leaves a chewy, tacky result, while boiling too long can scorch the molasses and make it bitter.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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